Acute resetting of baroreceptor reflex in rabbits: a central component

Electrical stimulation of the aortic nerve of the anesthetized rabbit was used to determine whether there is a central nervous system component to acute resetting of the baroreceptor reflex. After stimulation of the aortic nerve for 5 min at 10 Hz, a ramp test stimulus to the nerve produced a reflex arterial pressure response that was attenuated as compared with that produced by the same ramp prior to the five-min stimulation period. Renal sympathetic nerve activity was recorded simultaneously to determine whether a reduction in the magnitude of the reflex inhibition of sympathetic activity produced by the depressor nerve stimulation could account for the attenuated arterial pressure response. Renal activity during the test ramp was reduced to the same value both before and after the constant stimulus period and thus did not correlate with the attenuated pressure response. There was, however, prolonged inhibition of tonic sympathetic activity after the 5-min stimulus period such that during the test stimulus there was less sympathetic activity to inhibit. The results were similar when sympathetic activity was recorded from branches of the sciatic nerve and from thoracic postganglionic nerves. In these nerves the period of prolonged inhibition after aortic nerve stimulation was up to 5 min. The attenuated pressure response to baroreceptor nerve stimulation after a constant stimulus appears to reflect the reduced change in sympathetic activity rather than the value to which the sympathetic activity falls.